"Artify": To make arty; To imbue and beautify with art. "Heart": The center or inner core of one's being. Thus, to "ArtiphyTheHeart" is to imbue the inner core of one's existance with the beauty of art.
I'm a curious and creative explorer of the world, currently working in book arts, collage, mixed media, fiber arts and acrylics. Each day I try to share a snippet of my life and musings through a piece of artwork, and every once in a while I spice it up with a pinch of practical wisdom.

March 07, 2013

The first ten minutes of this page can be seen HERE. I finished it with multiple layers of collage and warmed it with an overstain of tinted walnut.

I keep a lot of different types of art journals, but I use my collage journals primarily as a means of exploring color, pattern, and composition. I have no problem combining unrelated materials, and I consciously try to mix whimsical mass-produced commercial elements and magazine pages with my own artwork and lettering. It's a playful, experimental dialogue between things from my hands with things from the hands of others. I work with these and other types of art journaling pages as a daily exercise, and they are for the most part, what I choose to share on this blog.

I plan to begin sharing more of my other work, maybe as soon as tomorrow. Not finished pieces of art. I don't put those on the web, and have no plan to ever do so. But I keep lots and lots of sketchbooks, and I have some favorite subjects that I revisit so frequently that they each have their own books. From time to time I think I'll pull pages from these sketchbooks and let you have a look.

But for now, today's page is enough. Feel free to click on the image and enlarge it so you can read what I've written. One of my favorite artists, Katherine Dunn, posted a quote from one of my favorite books yesterday on Facebook, and it fits the theme of this page so serindipitously. The quote is from Love In The Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Márquez:

"He allowed himself to be swayed by his conviction that human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but that life obliges them over and over to give birth to themselves."

How appropriate, since the theme of my journaling deals with discarding childish ways, embracing adulthood, and growing ourselves as an on-going process that is not an angst-ridden death to play, but is instead, a liberating process of gaining new insights, refining abilities, developing talents, discovering endless new avenues of productive pleasures, and enjoying the increasing freedom that is earned when we choose to take adult responsibility as opposed to chaining ourselves to youthful pranks and displays of power.

To grow ourselves, we are indeed obiliged to give birth to ourselves over and over .

March 05, 2013

This post is long, but it's worth it. Trust me. You don't have time NOT to read this. Reading this just might change the way you spend the rest of your life. After reading this, you may find that you end every single day with a sense of accomplishment. Truth! So here we go:

I accomplished a lot today. Much more than just one day's work. And only in the last ten minutes of my day did I feel accomplished. Here's the story:

My day began when I met with a group of artist friends. Two I had already met, one I meet with regularly, and three more I met for the first time today. We spent a couple hours getting to know each other and discussing and showing our work to each other. Very productive and lots of fun.

Next, I ran some necessary errands and accomplished everything on my list.

Then, I began working on stencil design. I designed and completed artwork and cut prototypes for three 8" X 10" stencils. No small task. It takes hours of fairly tedious work in a vector program designing each individual element so that only the lines that are to be cut are visible. Next, time is spent in placing each element in the exactly the correct space on a virtual cutting mat so that the computer will read exactly which lines to cut, where to cut them, and send this information to the cutting machine. Designing, finishing, and saving one of these files is a big accomplishment, and I completed three.

Then I answered emails, texts, and phone calls.

That's a lot for one day. A LOT! But I felt unaccomplished because I hadn't painted, drawn, worked with collage or spent time binding a book or working on an art journal page.

Now you may think that's silly. I did tons and accomplished megatons. But it isn't silly, and here's why: No one feels accomplished when the essential work of their life is left undone, even if that essential work takes facile seconds to complete, as opposed to hours of hard labour.

Here's the crux of it: Feeling accomplished cannot be measured in time or weight. It's only measure is satisfaction. Once more:

Feeling accomplished cannot be measured by time or weight. It's only measure is satisfaction.

It is never about how much we do, how long we do it, or how hard we work to get it done. A sense of accomplishment has nothing to do with these factors. Those factors are components of economy. Εκονομία in Greek: A word which has to do not only with economy of finance, but economy of everything. Economy of time, and economy of decision. What's best under any given set of circumstances. Accomplishing the job and getting it done has much to do with economy. But a sense of accomplishment has nothing to do with economy. It has everything to do with satisfaction.

So working long and hard and getting it done isn't enough. To provide satisfaction, the job must be the right job. Think for a minute. What job brings satisfaction to you?

And now fast-forward past the emails, texts, and phone calls, straight to the last ten minutes of my day. Here's what came next. I went to Google reader and perused the blogs I subscribe to. After a minute or two, I came to Kelly Kilmer's post of the day. Kelly suggested that we take ten minutes and pour it into our journals. More if we have the time and want to take it, but really, just ten.

OK. I can take ten. So I set a timer to see what would happen in ten--just ten--minutes. Did I finish a page? No. Did I get to the journaling? Not even close. Did I feel accomplished? YES! Why? Because I did one of those things that gives me satisfaction. Not all of them. I didn't draw, paint, or bind a book. But I did begin the process of collage in an art journal.

So ask yourself, "What work gives me satisfaction?" If the answer is creative work, then you might want to take Kelly up on her challenge. To read about Kelly's ten minute challenge and join-in, click HERE.

March 04, 2013

From time to time I post about my simple pleasures. This not-so-simple journal page filled with layers of my stenciled prints contains a list of some of my favorite simple pleasures.

Tea always heads the list, and the page with it's tie-dye colors reminds me of an old hippie coffee house where good whole leaf teas are stored in air-tight containers and brewed fresh, pot by pot and cup by cup.

Next on the list is birdsong. I live where the birds spend their winters. There's nothing more pleasant than waking up in a warm, quiet room with a window cracked open for fresh air, and the first sounds of the day coming from a choir of birds.

Two more of my favorite simple pleasures are tide pools, and just breathing deeply.

This is MYPL page 25. I've incorporated many stenciled prints using Liquitex acrylic spray paint for Stencilry. The tea photo is a print of the photograph in yesterday's post which you can see by clicking HERE.

March 03, 2013

Taking breaks are important things. Like taking a photo break with my tea.

I'm trying to take more pictures of some of the everyday things in my life, as well as the extraordinary. I have not formed the habit, so the hard part for me is thinking to do it. I grew up associating photos with portraits, events, and tourist attractions. Occasionally they were necessary for classwork, but I never thought of them as a means of recording the everyday things of my life.

Now I want to change that. Not for any particular reason. Not because I want to include my own photos in collage or in journals, although I probably will. In fact, I'm already working on a journal page using another version of this photo. But I do want to photograph more things more often, just for their own sake. I'm a firm believer that "just because" is a valid reason. And valid reasons are important things.

Thinking to snap a pic is so easy for lots of you. But it's foreign territory for me. Perhaps I should design a photograpy passport for myself to wear on a lanyard around my neck. As permission to enter this foreign territory. Maybe that will help me remember to frame and snap. What do you think?

March 01, 2013

I was blessed to grow up with parents who eschewed limiting ideas and behaviours.

I remember coming home from kindergarten and complaining to my father that Kathy D. told me I couldn't do something on the playground. "You can't do that," she said.

And my father answered very simply and quietly, "That's ignorance. When someone says you can't do something, they're just showing what they don't know. There is no can't".

So I told my father, "Tomorrow I'm going to go back and tell her that you said I can."

And he answered, "No. That won't do. It's about ignorance, so she won't understand. She'll argue, and that's no good. Let it always be enough that you know you can. Just go about your business and ignore the can'ts. Life is full of them. You need to let them be and just keep going. If you pay attention to the cant's, you won't see the cans."

It wasn't about defying authority. I knew the difference between can't and shouldn't, or may not. It was about CAN. And being told that I should quietly go about knowing that I can, made all the difference. It gave me the motivation to learn new, difficult things and the patience to wait for things. Why rush just to give up? Especially when you know that you CAN. So what if it isn't today? You CAN.

I learned a third exercise that many people don't think to do. People think to stretch their bodies, and people think to stretch their intellect. But most people don't think to stretch their capabilities. Even if they don't know it, they're stuck with the question, "Can I? Will I be able to? Until you answer that question with a yes, you're a member of the billions club. You're part of the billions of people that don't try until they're sure that they can. They don't know if they can, and they're afraid to try until they know.

I learned the answer to that question in kindergarten, but that doesn't make me special. Anyone can learn it anytime they want to.

(This pic above is page 24 from MYPL. The stencil is from yesterday's post, HERE)

February 28, 2013

One of the things I quickly discovered while cutting this stencil/mask: When cutting your own stencils by hand with an Xacto knife, the edges are really important. You have to pay careful attention to the intersection of horizontal and vertical cuts. It isn't enough for them to just meet each other because you risk frayed corners if the edges don't intersect.

Cutting text is good practice. It helps prepare you for the combined straight and curved lines in artwork. I could have used purchased stencils, but I wanted the practice. And I like that I can control the look when I do it myself. In an Art for Elementary School class I took in college, we were told to emphasize to students how much their drawing would improve if they practiced improving printing, script, and penmanship in general. I think this extends to cutting letters with an Xacto. If you practice cutting letters, your stencil cutting skills in general will improve by leaps and bounds.

Do you recognize this page? I started it a while back and posted about it HERE.

The first decision I made when designing the stencil for this page was where I wanted to put it. This art journal very conveniently has 8-1/2" X 11" pages. That means that if I cut the area which will receive the paint from a separate piece of printer paper and I position the cuts carefully, the stencil I cut will also successfully mask out the rest of the page. Once I decided where I wanted the letters, I drew the letters in a type style that I thought would look good on the page. Cutting out the letters proved to be quite easy.

Here are some notes I took to ensure the success of future projects:

Make sure cuts intersect at corners

On some curves it's easier to turn the paper than the knife

Fresh, new blades. Always.

Clean, unblemished cutting mat

No day dreaming! This is not the time to lapse into the zone!

Remember, you're pulling the knife, not pushing it. All cuts are on the pull.

I used Liquitex low odor acrylic spray paint in medium magenta for this stencil. The layer of acrylic spray on top of the printer paper reinforces and strengthens it with a light coating of acrylic polymer. You end up with the best of both worlds: A very easy to cut sheet of paper which becomes more durable after it has been sprayed.

I think the top pic of the stencil cut from the paper is actually pretty cool looking. I'm sure it will find it's way into another journal page soon.

February 27, 2013

Last week I received a box in the mail containing 14 colors of the new Liquitex acrylic spray paints. But I was too sick to rip open the box. If you know me, you know that I will never let a box sit unopened. I'll rip and tear until I've found every item. Finally today I felt well enough to shred the box to get to the paints inside, and I spent several glorious hours familiarizing myself with the contents.

After setting up a make-shift spraying station outside, I took a large sheet of paper and three of the transparent colors: Quinacridone Crimson, Phthalocyanine Blue (green shade), Yellow Medium Azo, plus Raw Sienna (opaque). I wanted to see how these would layer, mix, and blend together before moving on to the opaque colors.

The pic above is most of the left side of a 17" X 11" sheet of practice paper. Not the good stuff. Just 68# cover from an office supply. But it held up remarkably well, and it helped that it was a very bright white.

The pic below is most of the right side of the sheet. If you look closely, you'll notice that much of this side contains off-load prints from the stencils themselves. One of the nice things about the acrylic sprays is that the paint remains open long enough to get a good reverse print, unlike enamel sprays which dry permanently almost instantly. The paint is quick drying, but like all acrylics, it is water soluble while wet, and permanent when dry.

I'm looking forward to becoming more familiar with holding the can, setting my distance from the paper, and learning how to direct the spray to maximize the desired results. There are a variety of caps available for the cans which produce different effects of spray, and I can't wait to try them out. But for today, the goal was to watch how the spray hits the paper and pay attention to layering and blends, so I grabbed a handful of stencils and didn't pay too much attention to anything other than how the paint reacted to the paper, and to the other colors.

I think heavy-handedness, and a tendency to hold the can too close to the paper must be a beginner's hurdle. I had to learn to stand back farther and spray less aggressively.

This is something I've been wanting to explore for years, but my lungs couldn't take the odor of spray enamels. When Liquitex introduced their line of low-odor acrylic paint sprays, I was overjoyed! Presently the sprays are available in 100 hues which are exact matches to the other Liquitex acrylics, and I can't wait to use the sprays together with the heavy bodied and fluid acrylics.

For some guidance in using the sprays and in cutting my own stencils, I've signed on to Mary Ann Moss's "Stencilry" class. It's an older online class, no longer live, but all the information is available in videos and .pdf format, and several other friends have decided to play along. It's great to have a group when you're learning something new, and this is really very new to me. If you'd like to join us, we're learning each at our own pace, but together. No rush. For more information, click HERE. The class now comes bundled with a second class: "Stitched and Stenciled", so it's a two-for. Join us! The more the merrier, and I think you'll have fun!

February 25, 2013

Why? Because some days all you have at your disposal are a pencil, a piece of notebook paper, and a post-it-note. And you have to do something creative. And sometimes you're in too big of a hurry to bother wiping off the eraser bits before you scan and post. But that's OK.

February 22, 2013

I'm so excited to begin each and every day. I look forward to absolutely everything. Life wasn't always like this. There were days upon days that I anticipated with boredom and exhaustion. What changed?

Something tiny. A very tiny thought popped into my head one morning while I was making breakfast. I thought that maybe I would enjoy cooking, eating, and after breakfast clean-up quite a bit more if I did something creative with it. So I did.

That morning I rummaged through the fridge and came up with a small handful of veggies that I washed, chopped and added to a dab of melted butter in a skillet before scrambling my eggs. And a pinch or two of spice. Maybe four extra minutes of my time made all the difference, and I really enjoyed breakfast.

During clean-up, I kept a notepad and pencil handy. I thought about what I might make tomorrow and I wrote it down. I even thought about busy mornings on the fly when a piece of toast and Nutella was all I'd have time for. I resolved that on those mornings, I'd use fine china for my tea and toast. Or spread a cloth and have a floor picnic.

Those thoughts took me through the day and here and there I began to write down things that would easily add pleasure to other routines. I thought about adding a flower--just one--to my table every day. And I thought about places to get flowers and about crocheting doilies and all sorts of other things, too. And I wrote them in my notebook. Some weren't practical, but it was fun thinking them up and writing them down.

I thought about expanding this. Seeing every single piece of monotony in my day in a different light. And I thought about driving, and how I hated it. So I resolved to notice one new thing on each and every drive and to remember to write it in my notebook. Once I noticed a shirt on a man standing at a corner. Another time I noticed that the telephone wire running along the outside of a building I always passed was painted blue. Just tiny things. But life started becoming more exciting. I began to look forward to seeing. And I fell in love with thinking up ways to add something playful to every routine.

Some other tiny things that made a big difference were how I turned book reading and film watching--things I've always savored--into an end of the day ritual, and how I purposely skip some days and just keep them open. How I randomly pick a day each week to sip wine or tea in bed while listening to music. How I invite my family to join me, or ask them let me spend my time privately, and what a huge difference voicing an invitation or a desire to be left alone can make, and how it gives a choice to others.

And then, all of a sudden one day I realized that I looked forward to everything. All of it. And the most beautiful thing happened along the way--I have very a hard time now remembering how it felt to be bored.

February 21, 2013

...in everything is knowing what to keep and what to throw away. That includes knowing what to say "yes" to and what to say "no" to. And what to focus on when you read and which words are just there to hold the others together. And what to eat all of and what to leave on your plate. And who to hold hands with and who to run away from.

They all--everything, that is--begin with an idea, and that idea can be distilled into a "this or that" format. Once it's this or that, the wisdom is in knowing which to keep and which to throw away.

February 20, 2013

This is MYPL page 20. I'm in a hurry to feel perfect again. I'm at 96%. Not bad, but not quite 100%. In the midst of an illness it's wise to be patient. But at this stage, I don't think it's a bad thing to want to rush, as long as it's held in check. Wanting to hurry up and get on with things means that life is desirable.

February 19, 2013

A very different kind of page for me (MYPL p.18), but I was determined to stretch my wings.

It began with the upside down hat, which of course needed something pulled from it. Owls. Wiser than rabbits. Maybe just one owl. And typed text. Typed on tissue. What to do to offset the sterility? Funky block letters. As imperfect as I can make them without crossing into the "messy as crap" zone. In pencil. God how I've missed pencils! Graphite is good. Scribbled in with markers.

If you have an old typewriter at your disposal, I urge you to use it! I have my mother's old Royal. It's cast iron and heavier than the table it sits on. I moved it to my work table a couple of years ago so that I'd use it. Finally! I can't believe it took me this long.

I didn't realize the date until I went to schedule this post, so I changed the title. Happy birthday, Daddy!

February 18, 2013

This is MYPL page 18. I started it on Thursday, February 7th. For some reason I was really uncomfortable and I couldn't focus. Very unusual for me. So I got myself to a stopping point and called it a day.

That night I announced that I was sick. Really sick. It was strange that I just announced that, and even more strange, it felt less like I was talking and more like I was just listening to myself talk. Surreal. But then fevers are surreal. This one lasted ten days. Ten days of fevers plus a host of other symptoms that viruses bring.

I finally went back to that page yesterday. Ten days later. When I began again, all that was on the page was background, the topsy-turvy ladies, and the hearts: two positve shapes (bottom right) and two negative shapes (top left).

Here's what the page looks like flipped upside down. I added some yellow tint to the photos, and finished it with a few pieces of collage, and lots of pen work and lettering in negative.

Valentine's Day got lost somewhere in the middle of those ten days. The hearts hold the dates.

February 09, 2013

I'm working my way back and forth between various journals, taking a short break from the Connections journal that I've been showing in blog posts the past few days.

This is page 17 in Marvel: Your Precious Life. It has to do with some of my childhood aspirations for adulthood, and nothing at all to do with fashion models. More than anything, I aspired to a life without limitations. Not without reasonable boundaries. There is a difference. I was taught from an early age to beware of people who say "can't," and to positively reject those who dare to say, "you can't".